Educational device for visually demonstrating atomic structure



July 25, 1950 B P RAMSAY 2,516,418

EDUCATIONAL D'EvIcE FOR-VISUALLY DEMONSTRATING ATOMIC STRUCTURE Filed March 14, 1947 2 Sheets-Sheet l FIG. 1. FIG 2.

AZ /2 '/|u| & r 111% 31wowto'o BEN P. RAM 54 Y,

y 1950 B. P. RAMSAY EDUCATIONAL DEVICE FOR VISUALLY DEMONSTRATING ATOMIC STRUCTURE Filed March 14, 1947 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 'gvwc/wfo'v BEN R RAMSAY,

Patented July 25, 1950 EQUCATiONAL. DEVICE Foe VISUALLY DEMONSTRATING ATOMIC STRUCTURE Ben P. Ramsay, Powhatan loint hio ApplicationMa'lich 1.4, 1947; serialize. 724,774

1 Claim.

This invention relates to educational devices for teaching the molecular, atomic and electronic theories of chemical substances. I I

An object ofthe'invention is to provideaneducational device whereby the student may be taught visually the molecular, atomic and e'lec tronic theories of chemical substances.

Another object. of. the invention is to provide" an educational, device for demonstrating how electrons are shared. in non-polar compounds.

A further object of the. invention is to provide an educational device comprising a plurality of rotatable discs, each having mounted thereon aplurality of electric light sources to represent. atomic structure, said discs being mutually co= operative to illustrate visually electron sharing.

Still another. object of the invention isto pro vide an educational device of the character described. which. is simple in. design, inexpensive to manufacture, and which is effective. for the in.- tendededucational. purpose.

Other objects and advantages of the. invention will become apparent from the followingde= scription of a. preferred, embodiment. thereof. as illustrated inv the. accompanying, drawings, andin which, I

Figure. 11 is a frontlelevational. View of'niy improved educati onaldevioe.

Figure 2' is aright side elevationalvi'ew of. the device shown. in Figure l.

Figure 3. is a rear elev'ational view (iffth'edevice, as seen from. the right sideoffFigur 2; showing the wir'ingof the device- I Figure 4 isv a. fragmentary sectional elevation takenon line -4.of.Figur-e.3,.arid.

Figure 5 is a front elevational view of. a modified form of the device, employing two rotatable discs instead of. one. as was shownin Figure I.

In the teaching. of the structure. ofmatterl it becomes necessary to clarify many parts of the molecular, atomic and electronic theories by an explanation, and by the. use of. something tangible to represent the minute. parts of. atoms andv mole; cules. The Bohr. th'eoryassumes that the: plane t'ary electrons rotate in orbits about the nucleus, much as the planets of the solar system revolve about the sun. The orbit nearest the nucleus can hold no more than two electrons. The second and third orbits cannot hold more than eight electrons each. Orbits beyond these can hold inpound; the union is assumed to result from the mutual lending and borrowing; of electrons; s0

2. creasinglygreater numbers of electrons; cases of an incomplete'outermost orbit, theatom tends to gain orlose electrons to form. a stable arrangement.

When two elements combine to: form a com.-

that each atom has a: complete. outer orbit after the. combination; Substances formed: by the lending and borrowing of" electrons are called The valence of. an element is. the number ofelectrons which its atom mustborrow or lend to-f0r m a-complete-outer'orbit, the

polar compounds.

electrons in the. incompleted orbitbeing often referrecttoas valence electrons.

The present invention provides means for teaching graphically and visually the theories of atomic structure which have been very briefly- In order to understand.

summarized. above; clearly the. nature of the. invention; and. the best means for carrying. it. out, reference may now be.

had. to the drawings, in which like numeralsdenote similar parts throughout the several views.

mannerv such as by means ofa clamp It, as shown best in Figure 2-. A hollow tubular. shaft [8 ex;- tends through. said bearing. f4, and isrotatable therein abouttheir common axis A disk 20 formed of any suitable materialsuch as plywood or the like, issupported coaxiallyl with the shaft [8 bymeans'. of aooupling 2 2. the hub 24. of which is threadedupon onev end of the, shaft. l8}. as. seen best in Figure 4,. and the. flanges 26 of whiohare. secured to the. rearward face of the. disk 2? by means. of. screws or boners. The disk 2i] is. thusrotatable .withtheshaft I.8.. v

An insulating bracket 30 issecured tov thebear ing it by means of a clamp 32, as best shown. in

Figure 2. Apair ofv slip. rings and 36 are secured. coaxially to the. right. hand-end portion. of the shaft l8. as seen-v in the. view, both slip rings being preferably insulated. from the shaft. Spring contact fingers 38. and 4.0 are. secured at one end to the insulating bracket 30, and have their free ends bearing against the slip rings 3'4. and-3'6 respectively. Current is conducted. from a suitable sourceto the spring contact fingers by meansofwires 421 and.

Inall The shaft 18 and its attached disk 28 may be rotated about their common axis by means of a crank handle 46 attached to the right hand end of the shaft 1 8, as shown in Figure 2, or by means of power supplied to a pulley wheel 48 keyed upon the shaft i8.

A number of electric lamps 50 are mounted upon the outer surface or face 52 of the disk 28, so as to be visible thereon, the lamps being preferably mounted in sockets 54 which are seated securely in apertures 58 formed in the disk 28. There is a central lamp located at 58 and covered with a transparent cover or housing 60 preferably of some distinctive and suggestive color such as red. There are also lamps arranged in three concentric circular orbits 62, 64 and 66. The inner orbit 62 has two lamps located thereon at locations 58 and 18 which are thus spaced from each other angularly by 180 degrees.

The next outer orbit 64 has a total of eight lamps located thereon as at 12 and spaced from each other angularly by 45 degrees. The outermost orbit 66 also has a total of eight lamps located thereon, as at 14, and spaced from each other angularly by 45 degrees, and in radial alignment with the lamps of the next inner orbit 64.

Each of the lamp sockets on the disk 28 is connected by its two lead wires 16 and iii to two circular connecting rings 88 and 82 which are insulated from the disk 20 and from each other. All the lamp sockets are thus connected in parallel. The connecting rings 88 and 82 are connected by suitable wires extending through the hollow tubular shaft l8, to the slip rings 34 and 36 respectively, thus allowing current from the power wires 42 and 44 to flow to the lamps on the disk through the spring contact fingers 38 and 40.

The illuminated lamps may be all colored gold except the center lamp 58, the housing 68 of which is preferably colored some distinctive color such as red, to represent the nucleus of the atom. In using the device, all the gold colored bulbs are first removed from the disk 28, so that only the central bulb 58 remains lighted. The room is darkened. The face of the disk 28 may be painted black so as to be invisible in the darkened room.

The red hemisphere 68 represents the nucleus of an atom. A gold-colored bulb is placed in one of the two sockets 68 or 18 nearest the nucleus. The hydrogen atom is now represented, since hydrogen has but one planetary electron. By rotating the disk 28, the motion of the electron about the nucleus may be demonstrated. By the addition of another bulb to the first orbit 62, making a total of two bulbs therein, the helium atom is represented. By the addition of one bulb at a time so that the sockets are filled from the center outward, that is, by never adding a bulb to the next outer orbit until all sockets have been filled in the last inner orbit, an atom from hydrogen to argon inclusive ma be represented. The gold-colored bulbs represent planetary electrons.

When the disk is rotated with bulbs in the orbits, the orbits appear as colored, concentric circles about the nucelus. For another demonstration of the device, the magnesium atom may be represented by placing twelve bulbs in the orbits. There will be two in the first, eight in the second and two in the third. It is readily observed that the third orbit does not contain half the number of electrons necessary to complete it. Therefore this atom will lend two elec- By counting the planetary electrons of an atom being demonstrated by this device, the atomic number as well as the number of the element may be calculated. For example, an atom with thirteen planetary electrons has the atomic number thirteen and is element number thirteen. Since the number of protons in the nucleus equals the number of planetary electrons, the positive charge on the nucleus becomes readily apparent to the student.

It is assumed that the nucleus contains all the protons and a number of neutrons about equal to the number of protons. Since the proton is 1835 times as heavy as the electron, the Weight of the atom is nearly equal to the weight of its protons. Therefore the approximate atomic Weight of the atom may be calculated, according to the rule that two times the number of planetary electrons equals approximately the atomic Weight of the element.

Another kind of chemical combination may occur by atoms sharing one or more pair of electrons.

Two or more of the devices may be supported on the same post H], as shown in Figure 5, one below the other, with their margins overlapping as illustrated, their pulleys 48 being belted together to demonstrate the formation of compounds by atoms sharing electrons. For example, the chlorine molecule consists of two atoms. Before combining, each atom has seven electrons in its outer orbit, On combining, the two atoms of chlorine share one pair of electrons, and each atom has a complete outer orbit of eight electrons. By clamping the two devices to the same ring stand 18, with one disk lighted to represent an atom of chlorine slightl in front of the other disk lighted in a like manner, the disks may be made to overlap as shown in Figure 5.

When properly adjusted and synchronized, the outer orbit of each atom is completed when the disks are rotated. The formation of other nonpolar compounds may also be demonstrated in a like manner. The number of chemical combinations that may be pictured by using two or more such devices, is practically unlimited.

Although I have described a preferred embodiment of my invention in specific terms, it is to be understood that Various changes may be made in size, shape, materials and arrangement without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as claimed.

I claim:

An educational device comprising a support, a pair of rotatable disks positioned longitudinally of said support, said discs being spaced from each other with the marginal portions thereof in overlapping relation, each of said disks being mounted for rotation about a horizontal axis, there being concentrically spaced orbital circles of openings disposed about each disk, visual means carried within the openings of one of said disks for graphically representing the electron structure of a first element, visual means carried within the openings of the other of said disks for graphically representing the electron structure of a sec- 5 ond element, and means operatively connected to said disks for affecting the rotation thereof, said disks having their peripheral portions overlapping each other to an extent such as to provide for the intersection of the outermost circle of 5 REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 452,650 Randall May 19, 1891 2,477,179 Hart July 26, 1949 OTHER REFERENCES Catalogue of the Chicago Apparatus 00., Supplement No. 146, published by Chic. Appar. Co.,

0 1735-43 N. Ashland Ave., Chic., Illinois, page 2. 

